Live from the In-Store Marketing Expo: Home Depot
The Home Depot is making changes.
The home improvement retailer is cutting back on its use of in-store signage to reduce noise and clutter.
“The consumer is saying don’t overwhelm me,” Roger Adams, senior vice president, chief marketing officer for the Home Depot, said Wednesday. “They just want to get in and out.”
Through consumer insight, Home Depot learned that customers have certain priorities when it comes to viewing signage at its stores. Navigation was No. 1, followed by store specials, how-to advice, branding and in-store promotions, Adams said.
Home Depot is using that insight to tailor its messaging with displays and signs that explain the following for the time-crunched shopper: What can we do for you, what to do and when to do it, what’s new and cool and how to get it done.
“The retail experience needs to be fun,” Adams said. “That’s one of the reasons why people choose one store over the other.”
For example, Home Depot decked out its retail stores last year with holiday-themed packaging to make P-O-P fresh and exciting. It also ran a TV spot plugging its gift card displays. The humorous ad showed Santa Claus in his sleigh with an elf being pulled over by a police officer. The commercial promoted Home Depot gift cards as a gift-giving option given Santa’s impending delay.
“P-O-P needs to be the first thing we think of, not the last thing,” Adams said.
The retailer also uses lenticular signs to show customers how products work. For he Home Depot’s Portable Tailgating Gas Grill, the signs show how the product folds for portability and expands into a full size, working grill.
Adams offered the following tips to marketers to enhance their in-store experience:
* Learn to listen
* Less is more. “Just because we have 1,000 messages, putting them in-store doesn’t mean [people] will find them,” Adams said.
* Scream less and guide more. Make your P-O-P and signage informative and pleasant.
* Empower the customer.
* Make the experience more fun. “That’s really what it is all about,” Adams said.
